Narrative Junkie

For Replacements' fans

Young Bastards - The Replacements Were a Lot Better Than You Think They Were (Slate)

This past October was the 25th anniversary of the best rock album you don't own. Let It Be, the third full-length record by the now long-defunct Minnesota quartet the Replacements, was released at the tail end of 1984, a miraculous year, looking back on it, in music history. That year saw the dawn of the global pop mega-star. Madonna (Like a Virgin), Michael Jackson (John Landis' video for "Thriller" was released in December '83 and played on loop for the following calendar year), and Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A.) gave fledgling rock 'n' roll bands a new and coherent sense of what they didn't want to be when they grew up. In a telling shift in nomenclature, something called "punk" or "post-punk" became "alternative," and one hardly had to ask "To what?" The music was aimed at a fan base tuning out MTV, dialing in to college radio, and getting its hands stamped at shows in rec centers and converted lunch halls. The trade-off was breadth of audience for intensity of devotion. In 1984 alone, in quick succession, the hungry cognoscenti got Double Nickels on the Dime by the Minutemen, Meat Puppets II, Husker Du's Zen Arcade, the Smiths' debut album, and R.E.M.'s Reckoning. full article

Went to see American Idiot last night. Thoughts:

-If you don't like the album, by Green Day, skip it.

-I like the album, and I like this adaptation. I hadn't read anything about the production in advance, and about 1/3 of the way through, my heart sank as I realized I was watching another tribal rock musical attempting to capture the zeitgest of a decade. But soon I found myself emotionally invested in the story, as hard as that was to piece together from the lyrics. Plus I have to admit a certain perverse identification with the refrain:

Nobody likes you
Everyone left you
They're all out without you
Having fun

-After the play, I suggested to my companions that the character of Jimmy was a figment of another character's imagination. They were skeptical. But as I waited for the train back to San Francisco on the BART platform, I saw two of the cast members also waiting. So I asked them: "Was Jimmy real?" Nope, he wasn't. "He's like the devil that sits on Johnny's shoulder, in his mind," explained one of them. What a great moment in dramatic text interpretation.

-I would be remiss if I didn't mention the set, which was quite something

. -Even with my relative engagement with the material, about halfway through I suddenly wondered who had won "Project Runway." Very disturbing.

Jim Carroll's Long Way Home (NY Times)

IT’S not easy to come up with a second act when your first act was being Jim Carroll.

He was the author of “The Basketball Diaries,” a cult-classic memoir of his drug-fueled misadventures as a teenager in the 1960s; he then became a celebrated downtown poet; and then, the star of his own hit rock band.

Mr. Carroll had lived a panoramic New York youth that his fans had turned into legend.

But by the time he died of a heart attack this Sept. 11 at 60, Mr. Carroll, who had once hung out with the Rolling Stones and Allen Ginsberg, no longer bore much resemblance to the downtown cover-boy with the chiseled cheekbones and flowing red hair. full article

Hate me if you want, but I like this song.

"In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview. 38 years later, Levitan, director Josh Raskin and illustrator James Braithwaite have collaborated to create an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. A spellbinding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit and timeless message, I Met the Walrus was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short."

This cracks me up each and every time: Shatner does "Rocketman"

And here's one I hadn't seen: Shatner does Harry Chapin's "Taxi"

And of course: Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, on which he sounds truly demented.

Steal a little they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king.
-Bob Dylan, "Sweetheart Like You"

Don't give me money, honey, I don't want it back
you and your pony face and your union jack
well take your local joker and teach him how to act
I swear I was never that way even when I really cracked...
-Bruce Springsteen, "For You"

Well I wouldn't buy no merchandise
And I wouldn't go to war
And I mixed with other colours
But the nurse doesn't care
-David Bowie, "Scream Like a Baby"

How could this so great turn so shitty
Ended up in army crates
and photographs in files, his tiny boat
sparked as he grazed it
-Frank Black, "Motorway to Roswell"

She sends me blue valentines
all the way from philadelphia
to mark the anniversary
of someone that I used to be
and it feels just like there's
a warrant out for my arrest
got me checkin' in my rearview mirrror
Tom Waits, "Blue Valentine"

You know, some people got no choice
And they cant never find a voice
To talk with that they can even call their own
So the first thing that they see
That allows them the right to be
Why they follow it, you know, its called bad luck
Lou Reed, "Street Hassle"

Cameron Crowe's never made a movie I liked, but this list of his Top 10 (Or So) Music Moments in Film is interesting.

• Okla. governor intervenes in Flaming Lips flap
  

Online Sales Make Hot Tickets Harder to Get (NY Times)

Want to see U2 play at your local stadium this fall? How much are you willing to pay? The concert business is booming, with top tours grossing more each year. But as the economy constricts, consumer frustration is beginning to reverberate throughout the industry. Fans complain that the once simple process of getting tickets has been transformed into a complex and expensive digital chore. full article

American Idiot at Berkeley Rep

Went to see American Idiot last night. Thoughts:

-If you don't like the album, by Green Day, skip it.

-I like the album, and I like this adaptation. I hadn't read anything about the production in advance, and about 1/3 of the way through, my heart sank as I realized I was watching another tribal rock musical attempting to capture the zeitgest of a decade. But soon I found myself emotionally invested in the story, as hard as that was to piece together from the lyrics. Plus I have to admit a certain perverse identification with the refrain:

Nobody likes you
Everyone left you
They're all out without you
Having fun

-After the play, I suggested to my companions that the character of Jimmy was a figment of another character's imagination. They were skeptical. But as I waited for the train back to San Francisco on the BART platform, I saw two of the cast members also waiting. So I asked them: "Was Jimmy real?" Nope, he wasn't. "He's like the devil that sits on Johnny's shoulder, in his mind," explained one of them. What a great moment in dramatic text interpretation.

-I would be remiss if I didn't mention the set, which was quite something

. -Even with my relative engagement with the material, about halfway through I suddenly wondered who had won "Project Runway." Very disturbing.

The last days of Jim Carroll

Jim Carroll's Long Way Home (NY Times)

IT’S not easy to come up with a second act when your first act was being Jim Carroll.

He was the author of “The Basketball Diaries,” a cult-classic memoir of his drug-fueled misadventures as a teenager in the 1960s; he then became a celebrated downtown poet; and then, the star of his own hit rock band.

Mr. Carroll had lived a panoramic New York youth that his fans had turned into legend.

But by the time he died of a heart attack this Sept. 11 at 60, Mr. Carroll, who had once hung out with the Rolling Stones and Allen Ginsberg, no longer bore much resemblance to the downtown cover-boy with the chiseled cheekbones and flowing red hair. full article

The Killers

Hate me if you want, but I like this song.

I Met the Walrus

"In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview. 38 years later, Levitan, director Josh Raskin and illustrator James Braithwaite have collaborated to create an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. A spellbinding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit and timeless message, I Met the Walrus was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short."

Speaking of Shatner...

This cracks me up each and every time: Shatner does "Rocketman"

And here's one I hadn't seen: Shatner does Harry Chapin's "Taxi"

And of course: Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, on which he sounds truly demented.

Some lyrics I really like

Steal a little they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king.
-Bob Dylan, "Sweetheart Like You"

Don't give me money, honey, I don't want it back
you and your pony face and your union jack
well take your local joker and teach him how to act
I swear I was never that way even when I really cracked...
-Bruce Springsteen, "For You"

Well I wouldn't buy no merchandise
And I wouldn't go to war
And I mixed with other colours
But the nurse doesn't care
-David Bowie, "Scream Like a Baby"

How could this so great turn so shitty
Ended up in army crates
and photographs in files, his tiny boat
sparked as he grazed it
-Frank Black, "Motorway to Roswell"

She sends me blue valentines
all the way from philadelphia
to mark the anniversary
of someone that I used to be
and it feels just like there's
a warrant out for my arrest
got me checkin' in my rearview mirrror
Tom Waits, "Blue Valentine"

You know, some people got no choice
And they cant never find a voice
To talk with that they can even call their own
So the first thing that they see
That allows them the right to be
Why they follow it, you know, its called bad luck
Lou Reed, "Street Hassle"

Music in Film

Cameron Crowe's never made a movie I liked, but this list of his Top 10 (Or So) Music Moments in Film is interesting.

Flaming stupidity

• Okla. governor intervenes in Flaming Lips flap
  

Ridiculous state of concert-ticket industry

Online Sales Make Hot Tickets Harder to Get (NY Times)

Want to see U2 play at your local stadium this fall? How much are you willing to pay? The concert business is booming, with top tours grossing more each year. But as the economy constricts, consumer frustration is beginning to reverberate throughout the industry. Fans complain that the once simple process of getting tickets has been transformed into a complex and expensive digital chore. full article